hammer softening liquid

[Susan Kline]

At 08:09 PM 1/11/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Brian, with the Hamilton I have had success with both steam and Denatured
>Alcohol/Snuggles(4:1).

Use the alcohol; leave out the snuggles. Start with a few drops on the
strike point, wait a few minutes, try a little more on any that still stick
out. I get bulk alcohol from the liquor store and cut it half and half with
water, putting it in a plastic dropper bottle. Evaporates fairly quickly,
leaving nothing behind. I try not to pound the bass strings too hard with
wet hammers, for fear of soaking water into the core.

You'll get a lot of stale jokes about the piano feeling really mellow,
but in a way that's a bonus ...

Sometimes you'll need to lightly reshape the hammers afterwards, as they
swell a little unevenly if they are very worn out. The usual pattern is
a flat place in the middle of the grooves, quite a mushy flat place if
the hammers have been needled there too much, and a tight little ridge
on each end of the grooves, where the felt has been compressed but not
yet worn off. I use a couple of strokes with a hammer file to remove
the ridges.

If you soak the shoulders, you may be sorry.

It has worked well for me. Be sure you don't take it too far. Sometimes
people THINK that they want a piano really soft-edged, but then they
change their minds once they are actually playing on it every day.

Susan Kline